Dialog: Movie

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Dialog: Movie

Movie

When you run a model, commercial video recording software will not record a frame at each step in a machine-cycle. Also, it is difficult to record exactly one machine-cycle.

The Movie command solves these two problems.

Use the Movie dialog to record and save:

•a movie as a GIF file-type

or

•a sequence of images as PNG, JPG, JPeG, or BMP file-type

We append a number to the file-name of each image. The numbers we append are 000, 001, 002, ... .

or

•save one image as a snapshot of the model.

Before you record the movie, use the Movie dialog to:

•position and size a frame as the area you want to record the movie or images

•browse to a path, enter a file-name, and select the file-type for the movie or images

•control how many images you want to capture in each machine-cycle

•control the start and end of the movie relative to the Master-Machine-Angle.

Top-Tips

•Before you start the Movie command, move the Master-Machine-Angle to zero(0). Click Run menu > Home or ALT+H keyboard shortcut.

•Do not append the file-name with a number.

Movie dialog

Make-Movie dialog

Make-Movie dialog

When you start the Movie command, you open the Movie dialog immediately.

You also see a rectangle in the graphics-area.

The rectangle is the Frame.

You will record everything inside the Frame.

You can edit the width and height, and the position top and left corner of the Frame and number of Frames in the movie.

tog_minus Frame Size and Position 

MD-Dialog-MakeMovie-FrameSizePosition

1.Use the Pre-select a Frame Size... drop-down list-box to select a typical frame size.

OR

1.Edit the Width and Height of the frame.

2.Edit the Left and Top of the frame.

The rectangle / frame should now be the correct size and position.

tog_minus File-name and File-type 

MD-Dialog-MakeMovie-FilenameFiletype

1.Click the File-name and file-type... buttonRed-14-3

In the Windows® Save as dialog:

a.Browse to a File-path and enter a File-name

b.Use the Save as type list-box to select a file-type.

Select a GIF, PNG, JPG, JPEG, or BMP file-type

c.Click the Save button

The File-path and File-name are now in boxesRed-14-1Red-14-2.

Note:

GIF is recorded as a movie;

PNG, JPG, JPEG, BMP are recorded as a number of images equal to the Number of Frames - see below.

tog_minus Make Movie... 

MD-Dialog-Movie-MakeMove

1.Edit the Number-of-Frames box (Default = 30 Frames, Minimum=5 ; Maximum=10000)

2.Edit the Start-Angle ( Default = 0 ; Minimum > 0, Maximum ≤ Machine End-Angle )

3.Edit the End-Angle ( Default = 360 ; 720 ≥ Maximum > Minimum)

4.Select

oInclude Last Frame , or

oExclude Last Frame

Experiment! View the movie in your Video Player to see if there is a stutter at the end of the movie.

Make Movie button

5.Click the button

When you click the button:

a)We move the model to the Start-Angle.

b)We compile the movie (GIF file-type), or save the images (PNG, JPG, BMP file-types), at equal increments of the machine-angle, from the Start-Angle to the End-Angle.

Please wait as we save the file(s) to your PC / Laptop.

OR

Single Shot button

5. Click the button

When you click the button, we save for you a Single Snapshot of the model at the active Master-Machine Angle.

To compile the images as a movie.

To compile PNG images as a movie, I use Avidemux 2.6 - a free tool that you can download from the internet. My lawyer tells me I cannot recommend it.

In Avidemux 2.6:

1.Open the first image in the sequence of images - for example, Hinge-A000.png

Open the first image only. Avidemux2.6 automatically imports the other images in the numbered sequence.

2.Save the movie with the MP4 movie format.

Save the Movie file with the same frame-size as the recorded images.

MP4, with the x264 codec, is the recommended format for YouTube®.